A conversation with fathers about autism.
Apologies for the late review (not in a Tom Paulin way obviously) but it's the Easter holidays and we've been busy stopping the podlings destroying the house.
Confession time - When events about Autism that involves chat are usually announced my default setting mostly resets to 'righteous Autistic anger' as there have been so many times that whatever is said and done always appears to be not only from an NT carer/parent professional point of view but also set in stone.
Refer to yourself as an Autistic person?
Nah we use person with Autism says the NT speaker.
Explaining a meltdown?
That's not how Autism works says the NT teacher (you know who you are).
So when the 'A conversation with fathers about autism' event was first announced I was at once intrigued, interested and a wee bit worried.
I honestly shouldn't have been because as far as evenings like this go it managed to hit the perfect balance between honesty and informative without ever heading into cloyingly inspirational by achieving exactly what it set out to do - be an almost pub-based 'dad chat' about things that just happened to have a relation to parenting and ASD.
Hosted in an incredibly honest and open way by broadcaster Stuart Cosgrove, who popped his cards on the table (literally) straight away by admitting that he was fairly new to the whole wide world of Autism (something that no-one - and I do mean no-one who host these events ever do) alongside communications specialist John Hatfield, the pair dad double acted thru' their (vastly different) experiences of diagnosis, schooling and general everyday life stuff in a way that made the already intimate GFT setting feel more like a friendly pub chat than a stuffy speaker-led event and for that they must be applauded.
As must organizers Speaker Buzz UK for having the commitment to such a free and easy style of event.
Their staff were incredibly friendly and accommodating, seemingly genuinely interested in my reasons for attending and popping over for chats during the interval - the honestly seemed to care about the conversation as oppressed to jumping on the Autism bandwagon.
And for that they can only be applauded.
As for the hosts, Stuart is very much the everyman, instantly disarming the audience with his self deprecating humour and honesty (that word pops up a lot here) whilst John plays the straight man with warmth and an openness that's refreshingly unusual, not afraid to throw up ideas and opinions as one would amongst friends over a few drinks.
Seriously I could have stayed all night.
Most importantly to me tho' was how brilliantly honest the audience participation chat was at the end of the event with folk just sharing stories and experiences wih no other agenda than just to chat, the distinct lack of 'Autism angst' and parent-based martyrdom on show being a well needed breath of fresh air.
Often this style of event can easily fall into the whole Autism as a burden on families style of chat which as you can imagine is kinda negative and alienating to any Autistic adults in attendance and is the reason why a lot of the time we feel alienated by parent/carer support networks and groups in general.
I mean how can you feel part of a group that blames you (both intentionally and unintentionally) for all their woes?
Well there was no fear of that here, (my) chat and interjections were met with genuine interest and more importantly a good dose of humour not usually encountered when discussing Autism and quite honestly it was appreciated.
You can always tell how successful and event like this is by the reaction of the audience as they leave and in this case the conversation spilled over to the front of the presentation area and out into the street with everyone continuing to chat, swap stories and generally engage and continue the conversation.
And seeing as starting the conversation in the first place was the whole point I think everyone involved can honestly feel proud of their achievement.
More please.
Confession time - When events about Autism that involves chat are usually announced my default setting mostly resets to 'righteous Autistic anger' as there have been so many times that whatever is said and done always appears to be not only from an NT carer/parent professional point of view but also set in stone.
Refer to yourself as an Autistic person?
Nah we use person with Autism says the NT speaker.
Explaining a meltdown?
That's not how Autism works says the NT teacher (you know who you are).
So when the 'A conversation with fathers about autism' event was first announced I was at once intrigued, interested and a wee bit worried.
I honestly shouldn't have been because as far as evenings like this go it managed to hit the perfect balance between honesty and informative without ever heading into cloyingly inspirational by achieving exactly what it set out to do - be an almost pub-based 'dad chat' about things that just happened to have a relation to parenting and ASD.
Hosted in an incredibly honest and open way by broadcaster Stuart Cosgrove, who popped his cards on the table (literally) straight away by admitting that he was fairly new to the whole wide world of Autism (something that no-one - and I do mean no-one who host these events ever do) alongside communications specialist John Hatfield, the pair dad double acted thru' their (vastly different) experiences of diagnosis, schooling and general everyday life stuff in a way that made the already intimate GFT setting feel more like a friendly pub chat than a stuffy speaker-led event and for that they must be applauded.
As must organizers Speaker Buzz UK for having the commitment to such a free and easy style of event.
Their staff were incredibly friendly and accommodating, seemingly genuinely interested in my reasons for attending and popping over for chats during the interval - the honestly seemed to care about the conversation as oppressed to jumping on the Autism bandwagon.
And for that they can only be applauded.
As for the hosts, Stuart is very much the everyman, instantly disarming the audience with his self deprecating humour and honesty (that word pops up a lot here) whilst John plays the straight man with warmth and an openness that's refreshingly unusual, not afraid to throw up ideas and opinions as one would amongst friends over a few drinks.
Seriously I could have stayed all night.
Most importantly to me tho' was how brilliantly honest the audience participation chat was at the end of the event with folk just sharing stories and experiences wih no other agenda than just to chat, the distinct lack of 'Autism angst' and parent-based martyrdom on show being a well needed breath of fresh air.
Often this style of event can easily fall into the whole Autism as a burden on families style of chat which as you can imagine is kinda negative and alienating to any Autistic adults in attendance and is the reason why a lot of the time we feel alienated by parent/carer support networks and groups in general.
I mean how can you feel part of a group that blames you (both intentionally and unintentionally) for all their woes?
Well there was no fear of that here, (my) chat and interjections were met with genuine interest and more importantly a good dose of humour not usually encountered when discussing Autism and quite honestly it was appreciated.
You can always tell how successful and event like this is by the reaction of the audience as they leave and in this case the conversation spilled over to the front of the presentation area and out into the street with everyone continuing to chat, swap stories and generally engage and continue the conversation.
And seeing as starting the conversation in the first place was the whole point I think everyone involved can honestly feel proud of their achievement.
More please.
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